


Working Man

by Khi0n3



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Smut, Tumblr Prompts, valdangelo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-08
Updated: 2014-01-07
Packaged: 2018-01-07 23:08:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1125481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khi0n3/pseuds/Khi0n3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based off a tumblr prompt on the Valdangelo tag. <br/>"Leo is in Bunker Nine, and he's dancing and singing while listening to Working Man by Imagine Dragons. He thinks he's alone, but Nico is there too..."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Working Man

Nico tried not to make eye contact with the tall blonde guy standing in front of him. His hulking physic, something Nico expected from a football player or some other athletic type, loomed over him. Those penetrating blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. The small scar above his lip…

Everything about Jason Grace was exactly as he remembered from his previous encounters.

Tall. Muscular. Blond. Perfect. 

A Blond Superman. 

The only thing that didn’t match up with Nico’s memory of Jason was his t-shirt. Nico remembered Jason standing with his chest puffed out in pride, clad in a purple t-shirt and praetor’s robes. Now he stood before Nico, much more relaxed, still the image of a leader but with a slightly calming presence in the Orange Camp Half Blood t-shirt. Even in the dim light of the rec room where they held their Cabin Leader meetings Jason could be summed up in one word: Regal. 

“Do I know you?” Jason asked, his eyes still sizing up Nico. “You seem familiar…”

“Uh… I don’t think so,” That had been the rule. Don’t utter a word to anyone. Don’t give away the secret. Don’t tell anyone about the roman camp. If Jason was here and had no memory of him then it was likely that he wasn’t aware of the two separate camps. 

“Jason, this is Nico di Angelo, son of Hades,” Annabeth supplied from across the ping pong table. 

“Son of Hades…” Jason muttered under his breath as if he were searching for a long lost memory. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Nico held out his hand, not expecting Jason to shake it. No one did once they knew who he was. Jason, however, surprised him. Taking Nico’s hand, he shook it and introduced himself

“Jason Grace, son of Jupiter…Zeus…” Jason frowned. With a sad smile, Annabeth put a hand on Jason’s shoulder while the girl to his left, a pretty native american girl with hair cut in uneven strands and braided haphazardly with feathers and beads and piercing brown eyes, slid her fingers between Jason’s. Jason squeezed her hand in return. Nico raised an eyebrow, unsure of what to expect next. 

“There are a few new faces…” Nico remarked. 

“Of course… Jason, Leo, and Piper all arrived at the same time, while you were off looking for Percy… you wouldn’t know any of them!” Annabeth remarked, “Nico, this is Piper Mclean, Daughter of Aphrodite.”

“Glad to see Drew is no longer head counsellor,” Nico muttered under his breath. Drew had always made it her personal challenge to hook Nico up with one of the girls at camp whenever he showed up, which only made him more eager to leave. He never stayed long anymore. There wasn’t really a reason to. 

Piper smiled and waved shyly at Nico. Her smile seemed genuine, and again Nico noticed that she was extremely [retty, despite her obvious attempts to distract from her obvious beauty. He could understand how she had caught the attention of “Perma-bachelor Jason Grace” as he had come to be known at Camp Jupiter.

“And the new head counsellor of the Hephaestus cabin…” Annabeth glanced around the room and her stormy eyes narrowed and her frown she’d worn since Percy’s disappearance deepened. “Where’s Leo?”

“Fashionably late, as always,” came a playfully husky voice from the door way. Nico glanced up and found himself staring at a young latino guy, probably only a few (two at most) years older than him. He had curly brown hair that sat on top of his head like a wild nest. Strands stuck up in every direction, sections of it were clumped together with globs of machine grease. Dark smears of grease decorated his tanned face, where two chocolate coloured eyes bloomed spectacularly. His mischievous smile and slightly tapered ears gave him the appearance of an imp. Nico feared if he looked away from the boy too long, he’d probably find a way to cause mayhem and havoc. It didn't help that the boy couldn’t seem to stop moving his fingers. They tapped his thighs playfully, or swept a stray lock of hair behind his ear, only to run his fingers through his hair and mess it up again. Nico tried not to focus on his broad upper body. the toned arms which peaked out from under the sleeves of his tattered, greased stained, and slightly singed camp half blood t-shirt. “What’d I miss?”

The boy plopped himself down in the seat next to Nico, which had been left vacant. Most of the other campers avoided him whenever possible. Leo was going to regret his choice of seat as soon as he learnt the truth. 

Nico felt his eyes drag to his right, sneaking glances at the playful boy sitting next to him. He couldn’t imagine why his heart was racing or why his face suddenly felt hot.

“Thanks for finally showing up, Leo,” Annabeth snapped. 

“You’re welcome,” Leo replied, winking at Annabeth, who just rolled her eyes and continued.

“I’d like the introduce you to Nico di Angelo. Head Counsellor of Cabin 13. Nico… This is Leo Valdez, Head Counsell…”

“Oh! You mean that bad ass cabin with the wicked green fire outside the doors?” Leo asked, turning to face Nico, clearly impressed. “I didn’t know anyone stayed there!”

“I don’t usually…” Nico answered, keeping his tone level.

“Are you the only one?” Leo asked. 

“Yeah…” Leo stared blankly at Nico for a few seconds as if trying to figure out why Nico would be the only one in Cabin 13. “I’m a son of Hades.” 

“Oh cool!” Well that was a first. “So that means you’re wicked strong. Like Jason! And me!”

“Leo, you’re the son of Hephaestus,” Piper interrupted. “Not really Big Three material.”

“Yeah, but I’m still wicked cool. And strong.” Leo flexed his arms, making his muscles bulge impressively. Nico felt his face grow hot again as he watched Leo wiggle his eyebrows at him. Cursing himself, he returned his attention to Annabeth who was rolling her eyes at Leo’s spectacle. Trying to compose his face in such a manner as to look like he agreed with Annabeth, Nico tried to conceal the fact that secretly he found the performance entertaining…endearing…

“A-hem!” Annabeth cleared her throat loudly after Leo started bowing and _boo_ s issued from the lips of the other head counsellors, while others started throwing bits of cheetos at him.  Immediately the attention in the room returned to Annabeth. The thing about Annabeth was that she always commanded the attention of a room. No matter what. She was an excellent leader in that regard. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you, Ms. Chase,” Leo replied, leaning back casually in his chair, his feet propped up on the ping pong table. Nico tried not to notice the fact that Leo didn’t seem to be leaning away from him at all since he had discovered Nico’s parentage. Maybe Leo was just to stupid to understand what it meant. 

Raising an eyebrow in contempt, Annabeth continued. 

“The real reason we’re meeting tonight,” Annabeth explained, “is because Nico has finally returned to camp. I feel that it is important to keep Nico in the loop and maybe see what he has to offer on the subject.” A couple of the other head counsellors nodded in agreement. Others just stared blankly at her, as if they were thinking _just get to the point already._ “For those of you that are new here, Nico doesn’t spend a lot of time at camp, but rather wanders from place to place…”

“What Annabeth is trying to say,” Nico started, taking the reins from Annabeth,”is that I spend more time in the underworld than I do at Camp.” He shot a sideways glance at Leo, who didn’t seem to flinch or lean away. 

“um.. yes… Well the point is…” she cleared her throat again, as if trying to buy time and figure out what to say next. Finally she settled with, “Jason isn’t like us.”

Nico just glanced at Jason. How much had the demigods of Camp Half-Blood figured out already?

“I’m not a Son of Zeus.”

“You’re a Son of Jupiter,” Nico concluded. 

“Yeah…”

“You’ve heard of this before?” Annabeth asked. 

“Whispers from the odd spirit. I never really took any of it as true.” Nico answered. 

“What we’ve figured out is that there appears to be another camp of demigods. One made of up demigods who’s godly parents take on their Roman aspect. Jason is from that camp.”

“And you think Percy is there now.” Nico finished. It was a likely possibility, or at least it made sense if he were looking at it from Annabeth’s perspective. Jason had been dropped right into the middle of this camp, with apparently no memories. It only made sense that Percy might have been transferred to Camp Jupiter in exchange for Jason. 

Nico, however, had thought of Camp Jupiter almost immediately, and had headed straight there as soon as new of Percy’s disappearance had reached him. He had even asked his half-sister Hazel to send him a message should a new demigod show up. So far the only news he had received had been a false alarm, nothing but a disproportionate Chinese-Canadian  demigod named Frank. 

Nico nodded thoughtfully as if he were processing Annabeth’s information. 

“And you want me to see if I can find the location of this Camp? I assume he can’t remember where it is?”

“Yes, on both accounts.” Annabeth answered, “Hera’s magic was able to permanently erase that much from Jason’s mind. We assume as some sort of safety measure for the Roman demigods.”

“I can certainly see what I can dig up,” Nico answered. 

“What we do know is that the Roman camp is somewhere in or near San Francisco.” Jason explained. 

Nico nodded. 

“And Nico, we need to find it _before_ the Summer Solstice.” Annabeth warned. 

“Why?”

“The Great Prophecy is upon us,” Rachel explained from where she sat in her corner, “and I sense that Percy is one of the Seven demigods mentioned in the prophecy.”

“Ahh…” 

“Can you help?” Annabeth turned her stormy grey eyes on him. He could understand why so few could say no to Annabeth Chase, once she caught you in her gaze, you couldn’t escape it. 

“I’ll do my best,” Nico answered. Her face broke out into one of the few true smiles he has seen since Percy had disappeared. He understood her pain. He felt it too…

“Does this mean I get to show him my wicked sweet battle ship?” Leo suddenly pipped up. 

“Leo…” Annabeth said sternly, as if she were trying to say now was not the time and that Nico had more important things to do than see his silly little battle ship. 

“I’d love to see it,” the words escaped Nico’s lips before he could stop them. Usually so careful with what he said, Nico couldn’t believe the words had slipped out so easily. Something about that impish son of Hephaestus seemed to catch him off-guard. 


End file.
